Kamis, 15 Maret 2012

THE QUIET MAN

The Quiet Man (1952) The Quiet Man (1952) is director John Ford's
epic romantic comedy - a loving, sentimental, nostalgic tribute to his Irish
ancestry and homeland. A rich, beautifully-textured Technicolor presentation
deserving of its Color Cinematography award, it was filmed mostly on location
in Ireland, although some backdrops and background studio shots were obviously
intermixed. Its screenplay was based on Frank Nugent's adaptation of Maurice
Walsh's Saturday Evening Post 1933 short story Green Rushes.
Ford considered the rollicking, comedy love story one of his favorite films.[The memorable plot, about the collision course between an anti-materialistic,
Irish-American boxer nicknamed 'Trooper Thornton' (Wayne) in the town of Innisfree
in the land of his Irish birthplace and a local, mean bully (McLaglen) - further
entangled when he falls in love with the man's fiesty, red-haired, materialistic
sister (O'Hara) who refuses to consummate her marriage without her dowry (350
Irish pounds in gold), was inspired by a Celtic myth about a monumental battle
between two sacred kings (gods) who annually fought for the affections of
a queen (or goddess).]The famous director of westerns had already won Best Director
Academy Award Oscars for three previous non-Western films - The
Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940),
and How Green Was My Valley (1941). This sentimental
film, Ford's first 'romantic love story,' received a total of seven Academy
Awards nominations (including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor - Victor
McLaglen, Best Screenplay - Frank Nugent, Best Art Direction, and Best Sound)
and won two Oscars: Best Cinematography - Winton Hoch and Archie Stout, and
Ford (at 57 years of age) won his fourth and final Best Director Oscar, establishing
a record that is still unbeaten.Because the film was an ambitious, personal pet project and not one of Ford's
typical westerns, he was unable to find financial backing from the major Hollywood
studios, so he turned to Republic Pictures, a smaller studio regarded as the
studio for B-pictures and low-budget westerns. After the financial and critical
success of Rio Grande (1950) for the studio, the third of Ford's 'cavalry
trilogy,' he convinced Republic Pictures to support him for his next riskier
film - an Irish "Taming of the Shrew" tale that was remarkably similar in
plot. He brought the same stock company of actors from his western - John
Wayne, Victor McLaglen, and Maureen O'Hara - to Ireland to film his humorous,
epic romance. In the seventeen years of Republic's existence, it was the
first film for the studio that was nominated for Best Picture.It has been said that John Wayne represented John Ford on-screen as a younger
'alter-ego' of the famous American film director. [Ford was born Sean Aloysius
Feeney/O'Fearna in 1895 in Maine, the youngest son of an Irish immigrant who
had 13 children.] It is probably not just coincidence that Maureen O'Hara's
character name is Mary (Ford's wife's name) Kate (the name of his unrealized
love - Katharine Hepburn). Ford also cast his brother Francis (a silent film
actor and director) in a cameo role as patriarch Dan Tobin - an ailing, white-bearded
elderly man who refuses to die before witnessing the donnybrook fist fight
in the finale.The StoryThe idyllic, romanticized film opens, after a credits sequence with warm,
sun-drenched tones and music, with the central character, an Irish-American,
arriving by steam locomotive at the train station in the Irish hamlet of Castletown.
The action is narrated, in flashback, by an offscreen character, the local
Catholic Father Peter Lonergan (Ward Bond), the priest of the parish who is
also a devoted fisherman, as he clears his throat:

Now, I'll begin at the beginnin'. A fine soft day [Irish for 'it's
raining or misting'] in the spring it was when the train pulled into Castletown
three hours late as usual, and himself got off. He didn't have the look of
an American tourist at all about him. Not a camera on him. And what was worse,
not even a fishing rod.

As he steps from the dark green train, Sean Thornton (John Wayne) inquires
about the whereabouts of the quaint, simple town of Innisfree [a name symbolically
representing freedom and a return to an innocent past] from an assortment
of loveable Irish characters - the train conductor, engineer and other stereotypical
townsfolk. He is led from the train into an ancestral past - to an open, single
horse drawn carriage by a spritely, derby-hatted, pipe-smoking, elfin Michaeleen
Oge Flynn (Barry Fitzgerald), the local taxi-cab driver, book-maker, and match-maker.
[The suffix 'een' denotes little and is often used affectionately.]They ride under a train bridge after the train pulls out
of the station - the 20th century vehicle passes over them as they enter
the lush green countryside of Sean's past life. Michaeleen learns that
the 'six-foot four and a half' American is from "Pittsburgh." At a little
stone bridge crossing a stream, Sean pauses, looks toward a small thatched
cottage in the distance, and listens in his mind to his deceased mother's
gentle voice reminiscing to him as a child about her memories of her past
life in the village - the location of his birth and youth where she grew
roses:

Don't you remember Seannie and how it was? The road led up
past the chapel and it wound and it wound. And there was the field where Dan
Tobin's bullock chased you. It was a lovely little house, Seaneen. And the
roses! Well, your father used to tease me about them. But he was that proud
of them too.

The coachman quips: "That's nothin' but a wee, humble cottage." Sean asks
about the owner of the small cottage: "That little place across the brook,
that humble cottage - who owns it now?" After being told that the widow Mrs.
Sarah Tillane (Mildred Natwick) owns but doesn't live in the cottage, he firmly
intends to remain in the foreign land - his new 'home' and place of refuge
- and purchase the "wee humble cottage" of his birth, forsaking the harsh
blast furnaces of his American industrial homeland (with "steel and pig iron
furnaces so hot a man forgets his fear of hell"). Michaeleen is one of the
few Irish townsfolk who knew Sean in his childhood:

Sean: Do you think she'd sell it?
Michaeleen: I doubt it.
Sean: Don't bet on it, 'cause I'm buyin' it.
Michaeleen: Now why would a, why would a Yankee from Pittsburgh want to buy
it?
Sean: I'll tell you why Michaeleen Oge Flynn, young small Michael Flynn who
used to wipe my runny nose when I was a kid. Because I'm Sean Thornton and
I was born in that little cottage over there. And I've come home, and home
I'm gonna stay. Now does that answer your questions once and for all, you
nosy little man?
Michaeleen: Seanin Thornton! And look at you now...What do they feed you,
all you men who are in Pittsburgh?
Sean: Steel...Steel and pig iron furnaces so hot a man forgets his fear of
hell. When you're hard enough, tough enough, other things, other things Michaeleen.

Father Lonergan, who is afoot on the winding road and meets
them, narrates:
"Now then, here comes myself. That's me there, walking, that tall saintly
looking man. Peter Lonergan, parish priest." It is a homecoming for Sean who
is "home from America" where his widowed, hard-working, immigrant mother
died in America when he was only twelve. Father Lonergan remembers Sean's
Irish ancestors (his parents and grandparents), and then invites him to the
next morning's Catholic mass:

Father Lonergan: Ah yes, I knew your people, Sean. Your grandfather
- he died in Australia in a penal colony. And your father, he was a good man
too. Bad accident that. And your mother?
Sean: She's dead. America, when I was twelve.
Father Lonergan: (piously) I'll remember her in the mass tomorrow, Sean. (sternly)
You'll be there, seven o'clock.
Sean: Sure I will.

In one of the film's most fanciful, breathtaking, painterly scenes of the
picturesque, pastoral Irish countryside (and the entrance scene for the film's
star actress), Sean walks to an emerald-green grassy area of foliage where
black-faced sheep are herded by a collie. As he lights a cigarette within
a grove of tall trees, he turns and has a transcendent, romanticized vision
of a red-haired, blue-bloused, scarlet-skirted, bare-footed lass (Maureen
O'Hara as Mary Kate Danaher) tending the flock of sheep in the meadow. In
the scene common in storybooks and legends of the past, Sean is transfixed
by the ravishingly beautiful, auburn-haired Irish woman in the lush, emerald
surroundings - she is equally interested in him and gives him a lengthy glance.
Although her presence becomes a second reason to make Ireland his new home,
the American is so awed and dazzled by her beauty that he doesn't trust the
fairy-tale he has seen:

Sean: (rhetorically to Michaeleen about his distorted perceptions)
Hey, is that real? She couldn't be.
Michaeleen: Oh nonsense, man. It's only a mirage brought on by your terrible
thirst.

To put an end to the imagined mirage, Michaeleen drives them to Innisfree's
local pub/bar, run by publican Pat Cohan.Early the next morning, Sean kneels in the Catholic church.
A floor-level camera angle frames the colorful stained-glass windows at
the end of the nave and above the altar. Sean exits down the nave toward
the camera, passing the sheepherder lass kneeling in another pew - she
looks after him. [Later, Sean tells her that her face was "like a saint."] Following the Catholic mass,
Sean waits outside at the back of the stone chapel where the red-haired woman
follows. No longer in doubt about her, he removes his hat, abruptly scoops
up ecclesiastical holy water in his palm, and greets her: "Good morning."
Without a word, she dips her fingers in the water in his hand, makes the
sign of the cross with the water, and hurries off - it is a formal, spiritual
encounter.Down the path, she turns back for two wary but interested glances, and remains
half-hidden behind a gate as Thornton is scolded for his impropriety. Contrary
to what Sean thinks of his fantasy female goddess, the impish, leprechaun-like
matchmaker divulges her name, her eligibility as a shrew, her hot-headed temper,
and the lack of a dowry ('fortune'):

Michaeleen: None of that now, none of that. It's a bold sinful man
you are, Sean Thornton. And who taught ya to be playing patty fingers in the
Holy Water?
Sean: Just bein' polite, that's all.
Michaeleen: Maybe you don't know it's a privilege for courtin' couples and
then only when the banns has been read. And Mary Kate Danaher dippin' her
fingers in as neat as you please.
Sean: What did you say her name was?
Michaeleen: Mary Kate Danaher. Now don't be gettin' any notions in your head...Forget
it, Sean, forget it. Put it out of your mind entirely.
Sean: Why, what's the matter? She isn't married or anything, is she?
Michaeleen:...No...and her with her freckles and her temper. Oh that red head
of hers is no lie. Still, a man might put up with that, but not with her lack
of a fortune.

"The wealthiest woman in Innisfree was the Widow Tillane. She had neither
chick nor child poor soul, but she was well-respected and good to the poor."
Escorted by Michaeleen to the widow, Sean negotiates to purchase his mother's
cottage to recapture his own childhood - his own birthplace: "All the Thorntons
were born there. Seven generations of them." The widow chides him for wanting
to turn the thatched cottage, termed White O' Mornin', into "a national shrine,
perhaps charge tuppence a visit for a guided tour through the little thatched
cottage where all the Thorntons were born. Are you a man of such eminence
then?" Pittsburgh-raised in a steel town, Sean assures her that his idealized
intentions are pure - Innisfree has been his equivalent of "heaven," his Shangri-La
salvation from the "hell" of Pittsburgh, his paradise, his idealized vision
of his mother's memories:

Look, Mrs. Tillane. I'm not talkin' about memorials or monuments.
It's just that ever since I was a kid livin' in the shack near the slag heaps,
my mother's told me about Innisfree and White O'Mornin'. Innisfree has become
another word for heaven to me. When I quit the...when I decided to come here,
it was with one thought in mind.

The bullying, boorish, Squire Red Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen) is immediately
brought at odds against Sean Thornton - both Danaher and Thornton bid against
each other for the widow's property. [Smitten by the wealthy widow, Danaher
had wished for many years to purchase her adjoining property and become her
neighbor.] Because Danaher had gossiped in the pub and confidently insisted
that she would marry him, the widow spitefully decided instead to sell the
adjacent property to the newcomer - thereby alienating Danaher and Thornton
from the start:

Danaher: Is it true...that behind me back the White O'Mornin' right
from under me nose?
Tillane: And what concern of yours is this, Will Danaher?
Danaher: Concern? Concern enough. Haven't I made you a good fair offer for
that same piece of land? And mine, lying right next to yours.
Tillane: You may keep your offers.
Danaher: Oh, so it's true. You've sold it.
Tillane: No, I have not.
Danaher: (after a boisterous laugh) I knew it was a dirty lie the very minute
I heard it. Sure. I said to him, 'Paggy McFarland, you'll never make me believe
that Sarah Tillane will be selling White O'Mornin'. Why, it would be like
building a fence between your end and mine for a stranger to move in,' says
I. 'And what would she be doin' that for? And us so close to an understanding,'
you might say.
Tillane: So you told him all that, did you?
Danaher: That I did.
Tillane: Down at the pub, I suppose, in front of all those big ears with pints
in their fists and pipes in their mouths. You may have the land, Mr. Thornton,
for six hundred pounds.
Michaeleen: Done!...

Outbid, the dismayed and angered Danaher vows that Thornton
will be his enemy: "I've got you down in my book."Barging into the Danaher household after being outsmarted in the sale of
White O'Mornin', Will bosses his workers to return to their work, and then
reaches for a bottle of alcohol. Mary Kate, his 'spinster' sister, gleefully
thinks he has finally received his come-uppance, and stands up to her formidable
brother:

Mary Kate: Good for Widow Tillane...After all, he's [Sean Thornton]
got more right to that land than you have.
Danaher: He'll regret it till his dying day, if he lives that long.

In the pub, Sean samples one of the "black beers," and offers to buy a round
of drinks for everyone. But his generous offer of kinship is met with cold
silence and suspicious stares - until the 'tall man' is befriended by long
white-bearded old-timer Dan Tobin (Francis Ford, director John Ford's estranged
brother). The bartender removes his hat in an awed response to a recitation
of Thornton's lineage. The patriarch remembers his father Michael and grand-father
Sean: "Bless his memory. So it's himself you're named after. Well now, that
being the case, it is a pleasant evening and we will have a
drink." He pounds his walking stick on the bar, as Dermot Fahy (Ken Curtis)
starts playing an Irish ballad - "The Wild Colonial Boy" on his accordion
for all to sing.

There was a wild colonial boy, Jack Dugan was his name.
He was born and bred in Ireland, in a town called Castlemagne
He was his father's only son, his mother's pride and joy
And dearly did his parents love this wild colonial boy.

In another room next to the bar, Michaeleen describes the strange Yank with
a poor man's bed-roll:

He's a nice, quiet, peace-lovin' man come home to Ireland to forget
his troubles...Sure, yes, yes, he's a millionaire, you know, like all the
Yanks. But he's eccentric. Oh, he is eccentric. What till I show ya...His
bag to sleep in, a sleeping bag, he calls it.

The song, equating Sean Thornton (or his grandfather who 'died in Australia...in
a penal colony') with the wild colonial boy Jack Dugan, continues:

At the early age of sixteen years, he left his native home.
And to Australia's sunny shores, he was inclined to roam.
He robbed a wealthy squireen, all arms he did destroy.
A terror to Australia was this wild colonial boy.

The hulking Will Danaher strides into the bar, ironically
just as the words:
"He robbed a wealthy squireen" are being sung. Dan Tobin welcomes Thornton
into the inner circle of Innisfree citizens: "Sean Thornton - the men of Innisfree
bid you welcome home." Landowner Danaher remains bitter about losing the widow's
property to Thornton and begrudges him the right to his own birthplace: "I'm
a man from Innisfree. And the best man. And I bid no welcome to any man fool
enough to pay a thousand pounds for a bit of land that isn't worth two hundred...What
right has he to land that he's never worked?" The tyrannical brute also forbids
the American intruder from expressing any interest in his sister:

Thornton: The point is, it's already done. I own the property now,
and as long as we're gonna be neighbors...
Danaher: Neighbors? Oh, neighbors. NEVER! And if I so much as catch you putting
your wet foot on my property...and oh, another thing, you keep away from my
sister Mary Kate. She's not for the likes of you.
Thornton: Where I come from, we don't talk about our women folk in saloons.
You sort of make a habit of it.

Their conversation turns ugly in the pub when the cantankerous
Danaher is called a liar for suspecting that Thornton "took liberties that he shouldn't
have" at the back of the chapel - Sean's "Good Morning" wasn't genuine - according
to Danaher: "it was Good Night" that he had on his mind. The two are commanded
by Father Lonergan to shake hands - their extended handshake turns into a
combative, iron grip as they painfully squeeze each other's hands as tightly
as possible. They both wince during their first physical display of competitive
manhood.

Time: 129 mins.Rating: Not Rated
Genre: Drama/Romance

Won Academy Awards for Best
Cinematography and Director. Nominations for Art Direction, Sound,
Screenplay, Supporting Actor (McLaglen) and Best Picture.I have to honestly say that this is the first John Wayne
picture I've seen all the way through. I know he's an American icon, but
I generally am not a big fan of the genres he mainly starred in, so I
haven't watched any of his films. Besides, I find him to be a bit stiff
and limited as an actor. The reason I agreed to watch THE QUIET MAN was
because it's a love story that takes place in Ireland, so no indians or
battleship fights. It is, however, directed by Wayne's oft-companion the
renowned John Ford, who won an Oscar for this picture. Ford was
originally from Ireland and always wanted to tell a story about his
roots. Though it wasn't easy – the studios thought the picture wouldn't
make any money – he finally got his way. THE QUIET MAN is certainly not
the best love story ever filmed, but it's an engaging piece that really
captures the spirit of its location and makes Wayne charming to boot.
I'm not sure, as a woman of the 21st century, that I agree with the way
he constantly man-handles Maureen O'Hara, but there are some moments
when she deserves it. They certainly have an undeniable spark between
them that elevates this somewhat simple tale.

The film opens with the arrival of Sean Thornton (Wayne), an
Irish-born, but American-bred young man who returns to Ireland to settle
among his family's roots. Most of the townspeople of Innisfree are
thrilled to see one of their own come back home. His first order of
business is to reclaim his family's cottage from the widow Tillane
(Natwick). She is initially reluctant to part with the property, but an
unwelcome visit by town bully Will Danaher (McLaglan), who's been trying
to buy the land as well, convinces her to sell the land to Sean. This
sparks a bitter feud between the two men, one Danaher wants to settle
with his fists. Sean refuses to be goaded into violence, earning him the
nickname "quiet man." Sean has sparked violent emotions in another of
the Danaher clan, Mary Kate (O'Hara), but her feelings are more of the
lustful variety. She initially tries to deny her love for Sean, but it's
no use. He's a man who's used to getting his way and he's going to make
her his wife come hell or high water.

"Have the good manners not to hit the man until he's your husband and entitled to hit you back."

Of course, her brother hates Sean and
would rather die and have his sister live as a spinster forever than
allow her to marry Sean. Sean enlists the aid of the town matchmaker and
resident drunk Michaleen Flynn (Fitzgerald) to try to change Danaher's
mind, but it's no use. Without his knowledge, Flynn and the town pastor,
Father Lonergan (Bond), hatch a plan to make Danaher jealous by
claiming Sean has designs on the Widow Tillane, who would consider
marriage, but not to a man with another woman already in the house. Not
about to lose to Sean again, he agrees to let him marry his sister with
the understanding that he'll eventually marry the widow. Unfortunately,
though the first part of the plan works perfectly, no one informs the
widow of the scheme, who is outraged at Danaher's presumptuousness. To
save face, Danaher denies Mary Kate her dowry, which consists of family
heirlooms, mostly furniture, and 350 gold coins. Mary Kate is furious
with Sean when he refuses to fight for her rightful possessions and
refuses to have anything to do with him sexually until he claims them.
Sean chooses his love for Mary Kate over his convictions, since one's
past won't keep you warm at night. The stage is set for a major fight
between the two men, which doesn't disappoint.

Having been to Ireland, a place I hope to return to someday, I
have to say that Ford and crew captured the magic of this place
perfectly. It was rare to shoot outside the United States at that time,
but it's clear what a difference it makes. The fact that the film one
the Oscar for Best Cinematography is not a surprise. There's nothing as
green and beautiful as the countryside of Ireland and there's no way
Ford could have created such a wonderful environment on a sound stage.
The supporting cast made up of mainly Irish actors really went a long
way in showing what living in a village is like. Yes, much of the action
took place in the local pub, which is somewhat prejudicial, but believe
me, in a town that size, there's really nowhere else to go. I didn't
think the direction was anything special and would have given the award
to Fred Zinneman for HIGH NOON, but that's just me. Since I wasn't watching the letterboxed version there might be a great deal that I missed.

Watching this film has actually made me intrigued enough to
seek out other Wayne pictures. Despite his woodenness, he has an
undeniable charisma. It's easy to see why O'Hara's character fell for
him at first sight, though the village pickings before his arrival were
pretty slim. I think he was a little rough with her, but the film is a
product of the times it was made in and she wasn't exactly the most
docile of creatures. O'Hara has a certain spitfire quality that was put
to very good use in this role. For a film made in the 50's, there's a
great deal of lustful manuevering going on in this picture. The pacing
of the film is a bit slow, especially towards the end and really could
use about 10 minutes trimmed out. There's not much of a plot and though
the romance is fun, there aren't any real surprises to hold your apt
attention. It's clear Wayne and O'Hara are going to be together and that
he's going to fight her brother. The stuff in between doesn't really
matter, though I guess it helps establish tradition and location. If
you're looking for a love story with a little punch and want a good
introduction to the Duke, THE QUIET MAN is a film worth checking out.
It's nothing new, but the scenery and the romance make it a lovely way
to pass the time.